Exhibition Closing: In the Artist’s Studio: David Middlebrook

Exhibition Closing:

In the Artist’s Studio: David Middlebrook

June 28, 2018 – October 21, 2018

In the Artist’s Studio supports NUMU’s mission and success in being able to story tell in new ways. Most people do not have the opportunity to visit an artist’s studio and learn first hand how artwork is made, but more importantly why it is made. Art making is a response to environmental, cultural, political and personal experiences. NUMU intends to offer ideas and insight into this practice and thereby share the ingenuity, intelligence and empathy that goes into the creative process.

In this second installment of In the Artist’s Studio, NUMU is pleased to invite you into the studio of Los Gatos resident David Middlebrook for an introduction to his work, creative process and life as an artist. In this virtual studio visit, you will see his sculpture, view art making tools and personal items, along with photographs of private studio spaces, which are rarely open to the public.

David Middlebrook

interior of David Middlebrook's Studio

David Middlebrook is an artist who traces his roots to ceramics and who has evolved to become a professional sculptor specializing in site-specific work, and public and private commissions. David was born and raised in Jackson, Michigan and went on to earn his M.F.A from the University of Iowa in 1970. He became an inspiring pioneer in a ceramic art movement that was gaining momentum in the late 1970's. In 1974 he moved to California and began teaching at San Jose State University. He is currently the Associate Director of Fine Arts at SJSU. In 1980 he was the visiting artist at the University of Darwin, Australia and in 1982 he took a similar position at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. His travels put him in direct contact with the respective native cultures of each country and their unique artistic vision of life. This exposure proved to be quite influential in terms of content as the primitive aesthetic continues to find it way into David's work to this day.

In 1983 he traveled to Northern Italy and discovered stone and it changed his approach to art forever. He has since maintained a professional relationship with a studio in Pietrasanta, Italy. His work today involves a broad range of stone marble and bronze and he has established himself as a specialist in large-scale site-specific work and collaborates with architects, design professionals, developers and contractors, completing approximately 50 public and private works including nationally-awarded competition commissions.

David lives in Los Gatos and has maintained a Los Gatos studio for 45 years.